At times, it becomes necessary to deliver a powdered medication to a patient undergoing treatment. By way of example, such a powdered medication may be especially useful to create a cushion patch and/or to suppress bleeding at a tissue wound site.
When the powdered medication is stored in a single container, it is often difficult for a healthcare worker to accurately measure the precise dosage to be administered. Consequently, the patient may receive an excess or too little of the medication. Thus, the delivery process may be inconsistent and not easily repeatable. Moreover, a large supply of powdered medication stored in a single container over a long period of time may result in settling and stratification of the powder.
Some devices have been disclosed that are adapted for delivery of material stored in individual cartridges, each cartridge having a single dose of the material to be delivered. The device disclosed in European patent application EP 1 550 713 comprises a multi-cartridge holder arranged cylindrically in the device. However, such device is adapted for delivering genetic material of a very small size into living tissue. Indeed, the powdered material that is to be delivered with such a device is of a size ranging from 0.2 μm to 3 μm, which is thus far away from the specifications of powdered medication, wherein the powder is generally of a size of dozens or hundreds of micrometers. The structure and operation of such device is thus not adapted for delivering powdered medication.
Difficulty may also arise when attempting to accurately deliver a precise dose of powdered medication where the tissue site is not easily accessible, such as in the case when a laparoscopic delivery technique will be employed. Accordingly, it would be desirable to have access to a dispenser by which a precise dose of powdered medication can be accurately and repeatedly delivered to a tissue site requiring treatment.